This invention relates to environmentally-controlled crop storage building for storing crops such as potatoes.
It is well known that in order to store potatoes and similar crops in a building, it is necessary to provide a constant air circulation to maintain a constant temperature and humidity.
The necessary air circulation has, in the past, been provided by a fan which forces air into the building, where the air is further distributed among the crop.
However, such earlier buildings have circulated the air throughout the building by providing a raised or false floor above the building's actual floor, with ducts within the raised or false floor for carrying the forced air.
Such raised floor air distribution systems have a major defect that the floor cannot receive enough support that a vehicle, such as a front-end loader, can be driven on the false floor in order to move the crop around.
In other systems, the air ducts actually lie on top of the building's floor, making it impossible to drive a vehicle within the building.
There is, therefore, a need for an environmentally-controlled crop storage building with an air-distribution system that lies entirely beneath the building's floor, that is, within the compacted soil supporting the building's floor. This structure does not decrease the natural structural strength of the floor, so that a vehicle may readily be driven over the floor.